October 25, 2013 @ 9:30 am - 4:30 pm

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In 1962, Rachel Carson published her famous environmental treatise against the sterilization of Nature. Silent Spring was meant to capture the imagination of an adult audience. Three years later, Carson’s writing found a different audience with her posthumous, The Sense of Wonder, where she wished for all children “a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.”

As the title suggests, we would like to explore children’s literature through an ecocritical lens, giving priority to the ways in which these texts illustrate the relationship between nature and children. Though this conference focuses on children’s literature, we will also explore illustrations and film adaptations which correspond to that literature.